Racking off to a second FV

[Norv]

Hi there,

I'm pretty new to this brewing game and really enjoying it so far!

I have got one fermenting bin with no tap and one screw top fermenting bin with a tap and a little bottler attachment.

Now I have done 1 kit so far and have 2 more on the go now, but after I racked them off to the second FV I suddenly thought whether it was correct or not!

My usual routine so far is to mix everything into the first FV for 7 days, then rack off to the 2 FV to leave most the sediment in the original, thus clearer beer for bottling (I have only done EDME german style lager and 2x cervezas so far). Then when ready to bottle I boil about 300ml of water and add 250g sugar to batch prime, then gently stir this into the wort.

What I have just thought after reading about yeast cakes being left in the FV and another wort being racked in. Am I basicaly stopping fermentation dead by leaving the yeast in the first FV? Reason I ask is because my Wilko cerveza kit made with 1kg granulated sugar brewed to 20 litres had an OG of 1038, after 7.5 days it was 1009 and today when I was bottling it it was 1009/8. I was hoping it would go a bit lower than that. But that makes it 4% ish which is fine.

My other brew is a Coopers cerveza made with 1kg extra light DME brewed to 19 litres with some S-23 lager yeast. It has been kept at around 14-17 degress c and after 7 days fermenting the OG was 1046 and is now 1015, so I a, hoping it will continue to ferment and keep getting lower. But the remains of the FV were about 10mm deep and I am hoping I havent done something really stupid and wash all the yeast away!

So after all this drivel what I am basically asking is, would I be better off leaving it in the first FV for the full 2 weeks and then rack off to the bottling FV with the priming mix already in it? Or is the yeast on the bottom dormant and not needed to keep fermenting in a new FV?

Thanks in advance, I have done LOTS of reading on here and plan to keep this hobby going for quite a while!

Cheers, Mark.

 

[RobWalker]

as long as your beer has finished fermenting, it's fine to move to a secondary. what you have heard about is people dumping new wort onto the yeast cake so the yeast in the trub at the bottom starts the new fermentation - just a way of using the same yeast twice. your beer will always contain live yeast - it's how batch priming works - the yeast undergo fermentation the same way they do in your primary, but the gas is trapped rather than going through the airlock, so it creates pressure.

1.009 is a low FG for a beer, so it'll be dry - beer finishes anywhere around 1.010 to 1.020 depending on the strength. don't worry about it going lower. it'd be like a dry wine if it did!

so to simplify - wait until fermentation is well over - when it stops bubbling actively, take a gravity reading. if it's around 1.010 and you get that same reading 2 days later, it's ready to move to your secondary. stir in the priming sugar just prior to bottling or it will ferment out and won't create fizz. :thumb:

 

[Norv]

Thanks for the help. I had read somewhere to let it ferment for a week in 1st FV, then rack to the second FV for another week. This was to help it clear, so I read. So I have been leaving it in 2nd FV for a week before adding priming sugar and bottling, so I guess it shouldn't matter too much as the suspended yeast will still ferment in 2nd FV.

I think next time I will do as you suggested and just use the second FV to batch prime once it's done. It was handy to be able to have the two brews going at the same time just a week behind! Both cervezas taste very good, mitch better than the EDME kit I did before.

Cheers, mark.

 

[rpt]

I've got an old Dave Line book where he talks about racking to a secondary FV with airlock after a week. But it seems this isn't considered best practice these days with some people suggesting it even makes your beer less likely to clear. As long as everything is properly sanitised it shouldn't do any harm though.